February 1945: Allied leaders at the Yalta Conference during World War II.

Photoquest / Getty Images

A group portrait of Allied leaders at the Yalta Conference, which was held at the Livadia Palace in Livadiya, Soviet Union (later Ukraine), in February 1945. From left: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The conference was called to discuss Europe's postwar reorganization in the years to come.

April 26, 1945: US and Soviet troops meet in Germany at the end of WWII.

Allan Jackson / Getty Images

US troops of the 69th Infantry Division shake hands with Soviet troops in a staged photo on the wrecked bridge over the Elbe in Torgau, Germany, to mark the previous day's linkup between US and Soviet forces on April 26, 1945.

President Harry S. Truman (to the left of the podium) listens on as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes a speech about the Communist threat, in which he said his famous line: “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent.”

1947: Customs officers patrol the checkpoints between the US and Soviet sectors of Berlin.

Ullstein Bild / Getty Images

A West Berlin customs officer inspects a vehicle before allowing it to enter the US sector of the city in 1947.

ADVERTISEMENT

1948: Provisions are loaded and airdropped into East Berlin during the Berlin Airlift.

Getty Images

Sacks of coal are loaded onto an aircraft (left) at the Fassberg Air Base in Germany for transport to Berlin during the Berlin Airlift in 1948. The airlift was necessitated by the Berlin Blockade, when the Soviet Union blocked Allied access to West Berlin. A C-47 cargo plane (right) flies over locals standing amid ruins on its approach to Tempelhof Airport, where it was taking food and other relief supplies.

Aug. 29, 1949: President Truman signs the North Atlantic Treaty, marking the beginning of NATO.

Mpi / Getty Images

President Truman signs the North Atlantic Treaty on Aug. 29, 1949.

March 1953: Americans react to the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

Getty Images

A waitress (left) puts up a sign outside her restaurant inviting everyone to enjoy "free borsht" in celebration of Stalin's death. In New York (right), Commissioner George Monaghan, Mayor Vincent Impellitteri, and a number of other city officials look over the media's coverage of Stalin's death, while attending a boxing match at Madison Square Garden.

May 14, 1955: The signing of the Warsaw Pact between the Soviet Union and seven Soviet satellite nations.

Afp / AFP / Getty Images

The Soviet delegation arrives at Warsaw Airport on May 13, 1955, to attend the Communist Bloc Conclave, which brought together eight Eastern European countries prior to the signing of the Warsaw Pact on May 14. The treaty was signed in response to West Germany joining NATO the same year.

ADVERTISEMENT

1957: A Soviet scientist works on Sputnik 1, the first satellite to enter Earth's orbit.

Sovfoto / Getty Images

On Oct. 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 entered Earth's orbit and set off a space race between the US and the Soviet Union.

1957: Soviet dogs are used as test subjects during early experiments in space travel.

Getty Images

Malyshka, a Soviet space dog (left), poses with a snug-fitting space suit while training for space flight. Romanian postage stamps (right) feature Laika, one of the first living organisms to enter space, and the first animal to orbit the planet.

1960: US pilot Gary Powers inspects his gear after being shot down over the Soviet Union in a U-2 CIA spy plane.

Sovfoto / Getty Images

April 12, 1961: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in the capsule of Vostok 1, moments before he became the first human in space.

Images Gro / Images Gro/REX/Shutterstock

Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space as he completed a full orbit around the Earth in 1961. Gagarin was killed seven years later during a test flight for the MiG-15.

ADVERTISEMENT

Aug. 22, 1961: East German workers build the Berlin Wall.

Kreusch / AP / REX

Two East German workers secure pieces of broken glass on top of the newly built Berlin Wall, to prevent East Berliners from escaping.

1961: East Berlin residents live in both fear and disobedience under the shadow of the Berlin Wall.

Getty Images

West Berliners (left) wave to relatives in East Berlin from across the Berlin Wall. A refugee from East Berlin (right) attempts to escape by climbing over it.

March 1960: Fidel Castro and Che Guevara parade through the streets of Havana.

Universal History Archive / Getty Images

Castro (far left) and Guevara (center) march arm-in-arm with Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado, the president of Cuba from 1959 to 1976.

Oct. 22, 1962: President John F. Kennedy addresses the nation on the Cuban missile crisis.

Ralph Crane / Getty Images

A large group of customers in California gathers in an electronics department to watch as President Kennedy delivers a televised address to the nation on the the Cuban missile crisis.

ADVERTISEMENT

Nov. 7, 1967: Surface-to-air missiles on display during a military parade in Moscow's Red Square.

Soviet leader Gorbachev and President Reagan smile during the summit's concluding ceremony.

Nov. 11 1989: Crowds gather as East German border guards demolish a section of the Berlin Wall.

Gerard Malie / AFP / Getty Images

West Berliners crowd in front of the Berlin Wall as they watch East German border guards demolish a section to open a new crossing point between East and West Berlin. Two days beforehand, Günter Schabowski, the East Berlin Communist Party boss, declared that East Germans would be free to leave the country without permission.

November 1990: Discarded communist symbols from the Soviet Union are left vandalized in the streets of Moscow.

Alexander Nemenov / AFP / Getty Images

A woman fixes her belongings atop a vandalized hammer and sickle on a Moscow street. The hammer and sickle was a communist symbol conceived during the Russian Revolution.

Gabriel H. Sanchez is the photo essay editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York City.